Maine pharmacy robberies fall nearly 80 percent

By CLARKE CANFIELD/Associated Press/June 10, 2013

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The state is on pace to see a large drop in pharmacy robberies, but police are warning that one apparent reason for the decline is the increasing use of heroin.

Maine, which had a record 56 pharmacy robberies last year, has had five in the first five months of 2013 and is on pace to have fewer than a dozen for the year.

The high arrest rate about 80 percent of last years robberies resulted in arrests is being partly credited with the decline. But the more disturbing reason is the surge in cheap heroin, said Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Morris.

I know anecdotally the price of heroin is less than (synthetic) opiates, and it makes sense that people are going to heroin because its cheaper, meaning drug users are less likely to turn to robbing pharmacies to satisfy their addictions, Morris said.

Five years ago, Maine had only two drug store robberies.

But addicts in recent years have targeted drug stores in search of oxycodone, hydrocodone and other prescription painkillers that, like heroin, are opiates. The robbery count rose into the 20s in 2010 and 2011 before spiking last year to 56 roughly 17 percent of the states pharmacies.

This years steep drop is a relief for the states 324 licensed pharmacies, said Kenneth McCall, president of the Maine Pharmacy Association. Robberies are traumatic and have caused some pharmacists to sell their businesses or change career paths, he said.

Last year was not just a record year, but it was an alarming trend because 2012 exceeded 2011, and 2011 exceeded 2010, and 2010 exceeded 2009, said McCall, a professor at the University of New England College of Pharmacy. In consecutive years we've seen escalating numbers of pharmacy robberies, so the positive trend in the first half of this year is a very important step in the right direction.

Portland reported that it had 14 heroin overdoses in a single month this spring, and overdose deaths have been reported in Portland, Brunswick and Augusta in recent weeks.

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Maine pharmacy robberies fall nearly 80 percent